Wow... TIME Magazine has included Burning Man in its book "Great Places of History: Civilization's 100 Most Important Sites: An Illustrated Journey" (Amazon link). Take a look at the ToC, we're at #100 under Arts.

I mean, *I* know the event is important and special, but there's something strangely gratifying to see that a name-brand publication would agree. So what do you think - is this a good thing? Could it help to open the eyes of more people, and expose them to the realm of what's possible? Or will it just increase the spectator/tourist headcount as more people put it on their bucket lists?

These things always seem like some sort of idiocy to me. Even at 100 entries, it's only a tiny sample of cool cities ("great"? I don't even know what that means in this context*) and someone else could easily come up with a substatially different one. And a list made 100 years ago is going to vary a lot. And you get to 1000 years ago, and it's pretty much another planet...

I'm in the "any publicity is bad publicity" camp, I suppose, but that's a different sort of answer.

*I suppose you could call Leningrad for what it went through in WWII, but Stalingrad wasn't. London could be as well, but it would be on the list from anyone in Europe for the past 300 years or more. Ur? Cairo? Is greatness military prowess? Fantastic buildings? Am I even asking the right questions?

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

Definitely gives the event validation--which begs the questions: "Did it really need validation?" and "Now that it has been validated as 'One of civilization's most important sites', does that value or devalue the event?"

I think I liked it better when it was thought of as "counter culture".

JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

To me, showing up in a Time Magazine coffee-table book is as close to "no publicity" as I could hope for. I mean, who buys these things? My guess is that it's either people who never travel but like to pretend that a book or movie approximates the experience, or it's people who do a bit of research before tackling something like traveling the Nile.

Worst would be a cover article in Maxim or Playboy. I may be projecting, but readers of those magazines tend to see "boobies" and "free", point, and tell their bros, "we're there, bros." Then they throw a few thousand dollars at it and head to the desert.

And I think there already is an "Any Publicity is Bad Publicity Camp". There are a lot of them. I have yet to see one on the Esplanade. They often use misdirection, like advertising "RV America" instead. Or they look like they belong at Yellowstone instead: everything stowed, nobody home, and no bar.